Draft-equalizer.



A. HINES.

DRAFT EQUALIZER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 16, 1909.

Patented Aug. 24. 1909.

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witmaoow v UNITED STATES, Parana orricn.

ALFRED HINES, OF WASCO, OREGON.

' DRAFT-EQUALIZER.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, ALFRED Hines, a citizen of the United States,residing at lVasco, in the county of Sherman and State of Oregon, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Draft-Equalizers, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that form of draft attachments which areemployed for hitching the team in groups to the plows or otherimplements or machines to be drawn, and it especially relates to groupsof three. It has been common in this triple grouping to arrange threedraft animals abreast, with the swingletrees of the three animalsconnected to an evener bar in such relation to its rear draft point asto divide the evener bar into thirds, the short end of the evener barbeing connected to two swingletrees in front of it and the long end tothe other one of the three swingletrees abreast. My invention employsthis old arrangement, but provides in addition such further constructionand arrangement of the parts as to permit the horses in a plurality ofgroups of three abreast to be so arranged that the center of each groupshall be in the center draft line of all the other groups and yet theflexible draft cable connecting the groupsshall stand at an angle to thedraft line so as to connect a rear group at one side of its center withthe middle of the group in front, thereby leaving a sufiicient space forthe two horses of any group on one side of the connecting cable chainwithout being chafed thereby and yet preserving the center of each groupin the same draft alinement and thus allowing the horses to walkstraight in the furrow, each horse of each group being exactly in linewith the corresponding horses of the other groups.

Figure 1 is a plan View of the equalizer arranged for a gang of ninehorses disposed in groups of three abreast in accordance with myinvention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view partly broken away of theconnections of the rear group. Fig. 2 is a rear edge view of the middlepart of the same and, Fig. 3 is a plan view on a smaller scale showingmy invention as applied to six horses.

In the drawing, Fig. 1, A, B, C, represent three groups of draft animalsof three abreast connected up by my draft equalizer in accordance withmy invention. D is the rear main draft attachment which connectsSpecification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 16, 1909.

Patented Aug. 24, 1909.

Serial No. 483,759.

with the plows, or other implements or machines to be drawn, and whichdraft attachment bears the entire strain of the whole team.

Of the three groups, the two rear ones A and B necessarily involve myinvention, but the front one C may or may not; that is to say, thisgroup C may have any desired number of horses so long as the center ofthe group is in line with the center of the rear groups.

I will now proceed to describe and point out the distinctive features ofmy invention. It will be perceived, in the first place, that the draftcables E, E and F, E, which connect the groups, are duplex cable chainswhich have a single point of connection near the middle of the group infront as at a and a and two independent points of connection at the rearas at bZ) and 6 6 This in itself is old, as shown for instance in theexpired patent No. 253,071, Jan. 81, 1882, but it will be furthernoticed that the group-connecting cables EE and FF? are not parallel tothe line of draft, but stand at a considerable angle thereto. Thus thedotted lines 1, 2, 3 represent the parallel lines of draft, in which itwill be seen that each middle horse stands exactly in the center line 2of draft, and each outside horse on one side stands in the same draftline 1, and each outside horse on the other side stands in the samedraft line The angular position of the group-connecting cables EE and FF to the line of draft is specially related to my intention and is adistinctive feature of the same, which I will now describe.

Referring to Fig. 2, which represents the draft connections of the reargroup of three horses next to the plow, X represents a truss framecomposed of two members slightly bowed away from each other as seen inFi 2, one above the other. The two members are rigidly connected by abolt 0 and are spaced apart a suiiicient distance to allow the twolevers G and H to play between them. The lever G is fulcrumed upon abolt g which also connects the outer ends of the two members of thetruss X and the lever H isfulcrumed upon a bolt h, which also connectsthe outer ends of the truss members on the otherside. The main draftconnection D is a clevis whose arms embrace and are pivotally connectedto the upper and lower members of the truss X at a point one third ofits length from the left hand end. The inner end of lever G from itsfulcrum g to its hitching hook I) is half as long as the outer portionfrom fulcrum g to the outer end 9 so as to divide the lever into thirds.At the outer end g of the lever Gr is hitched a double tree 1 to whichare connected two swingle-trees J d The lever H is also divided aboutits fulcrum /L into thirds, so that the inner end from fulcrum it tohitching hook is one half of the length from the fulcrum /L to the outerend h To this outer end is attached a swingle-tree J. To the twojuxtaposed hooks 6-0 are attached the double cable chains E E whichextend forward to and connect with a single ring a of the next draftconnection in front, as seen in Fig. 1. This next draft connection infront, shown at X G H is constructed and arranged the same as the onejust described, except that the levers G and H are fulcrumed in theirmiddle lines so at to divide them into halves. The rear draft connectiona of this group of the team, to which the forward end of the cables EEare attached, it will be seen is near the middle line of the centerhorse, while the rear ends of the cables I d-E as at 6-6 are offset toone side of the main draft clevis D. This causes the general directionof the cables EE to be at an angle to the center draft line 22. Thisgives more room for the double team on the left hand side and stillallows the horses in the three groups to stand in parallel lines, withthe middle horse in each group in line with the middle horse of theother groups and the outside horses of each group also in parallelalinement. This also enables the horses of the several groups to standin a line in the furrow.

The middle draft equalizer has its two cable chains F-F also extendingin angular relation to the lines of draft and at their forward ends areconnected in a single ring to an equalizer divided into thirds for threehorses as shown, or any other grouping, there being no cable chainextending forward of this group.

It will be seen from the foregoing that my invention as thus describedprovides for a team of nine horses arranged in groups of three abreast,that the double-tree of each group is on the same side of the cablechains, that each horse of each group walks in the line of draft of thecorresponding horse of each of the other groups and that the cable chainstands at an angle to the line of draft, giving a wider space at therear end of the cable chains for the double teams and that the draftconnections D and a are on one side of the cable chains EE and F F 1 andon the same side in relation to each other.

Although it might appear that the two front groups of teams would have atendency to drift sidewise and straighten out the draft cables toparallelism with the line of advance, yet this in practice does notoccur, for a. combination of reasons. First, because the instinct andeducation of the draft animals cause them to walk straight in thefurrow, even if the line of the draft strain is not exactly coincidentwith the line of advance. Second, because in practice the angularvariation is slight and there is but little side strain, and thirdly,because any tendency to drift sidewise is distributed through the threehorses and is not concentrated on any one of the group sufhciently todisturb his proper line of travel.

In modifying my invention, the front group C oftheteam may be changed innumbers but still preserving the three groups. If desired also the reargroup A may be omitted and the groups B and C alone may be employedforming a team of six as seen in Fig. 3, in which it will be perceivedthat the same angular relation of the draft cables to the line of draftexists, the horses all walk in alinement and the doubletrees are all onthe same side of the draft cable.

I claim.

1. A draft equalizer for a plurality of groups of animals, comprising arear equalizer consisting of a truss having upper and lower members, twolevers fulcrumed respectively between the ends of the upper and lowermembers of the truss and having their inner adjacent ends between thetruss members provided with cable connections, a main rear draftconnection pivotally attached to the truss one third the distance of itslength from one end, a double tree with two swingle-trees connected tothe outer end of one lever, a swingle-tree connected to the outer end ofthe other lever, two cables connected respectively to the inner ends ofthe two levers and extending forwardly at an angle to the line of draftand having a draft attachment for a plurality of animals connected toits forward end.

2. A draft equalizer for a plurality of groups of animals, comprising arear equalizer consisting of a truss having upper and lower members, twolevers fulcrumed respectively between the ends of the upper and lowermembers of the truss and having their inner adjacent ends between thetruss members provided with cable connections, a main rear draftconnection pivotally attached to the truss one third the distance of itslength from one end, a double tree with two swingle-trees connected tothe outer end of one lever, a swingle-tree connected to the outer end ofthe other lever, two cables connected respectively to the inner ends ofthe two levers and extending forwardly at an angle to the line of draftand having a draft attachment for a plurality of animals connected toits forward end, said draft attachment consisting of a draft equalizerconnected to the cable at a point one third the distance from the endand having a doubletree with two swingle-trees on one end and oneswingle-tree on the other end, the doubletrees of both front and rearequalizers being on the same side of the cable connection for the twoequalizers, to bring the animals of the double-tree of one equalizer inthe line of draft with the animals of the double-tree of the otherequalizer and the animals of the swingle-trees of the two equalizers insimilar relation.

3. A draft equalizer for three groups of animals, comprising a rearequalizer consisting of a truss having upper and lower members, twolevers of unequal length fulcrumed respectively between the ends of theupper and lower members of the truss at points representing one third ofthe length of said levers and having their inner adjacent ends betweenthe truss members provided with cable connections, a main draftconnection pivotally attached to the rear truss one third the distanceof its length from the end, a double-tree with two swingle-treesconnected to the outer end of the longer lever, a swingle-tree connectedto the outer end of the shorter lever, two cables connected respectivelyto the inner ends of the two levers of the rear equalizer and extendingforward at an angle to the line of draft, a second equalizer in fronthaving a truss with a draft connection one third the distance from itsend attached to the forward end of the said cable chains, two levers forsaid second equalizer fulcrumed at their middle points to the ends ofsaid last named truss and having cable connections on their inner ends,a double-tree with two swingle-trees connected to one end of one lever,a swingletree attached to the end of the other lever, two cablesconnected to the inner ends of the last named levers and extendingforwardly at an angle to the line of draft, and a third. front teamconnection attached to the forward ends of said last named cables.

l. A draft equalizer for three groups of animals, comprising a rearequalizer consisting of a truss having upper and lower memhere, twolevers of unequal length fulcrumed respectively between the ends of theupper and lower members of the truss at points representing one third ofthe length of said levers and having their inner adjacent ends betweenthe truss members provided with cable connections, a main draftconnection pivotally attached to the rear truss one third the distanceof its length from the end, a double-tree with two swingle-treesconnected to the outer end of the longer lever, a swingle-tree connectedto the outer end of the shorter lever, two cables connected respectively to the inner ends of the two levers of the rear equalizer andextending forwardly at an angle to the line of draft, a second equalizerin front having a truss with a draft connection one third the distancefrom its ends attached to the forward end of the said cable chains, twolevers for said second equalizer fulcrumed at their middle points to theends of said last named truss and having cable connections on theirinner ends, a double-tree with two swingle-trees connected to one end ofone lever, a swingle-tree attached to the end of the other lever, twocables connected to the inner ends of the last named levers andextending forwardly at an angle to the line of draft, and a third frontteam connection attached to the forward ends of said last named cables,said front team connection consisting of an equalizer bar fulcrumed onethird the dis tance from its ends on the forward ends of the front draftcables and having a double team connection on the short end anda singleteam connection on the long end to form a nine team gang with the doubleteams of each equalizer in line with the double team of all the otherequalizers and the single teams of each equalizer in line with thesingle teams of all the other equalizers.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

ALFRED HINES.

lVitnesses E. BYRN, Jr., N. R. GRIMM.

